English subtitles for clip: File:West Wing Week- 06-25-10 or "Mailbag Day".webm

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♪♪ (music playing) ♪♪

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Narrator:
Welcome to the West Wing Week,
your guide to everything that's

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happening at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue.

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But first, a brief message from
the Director of Presidential

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Correspondents, Mike Kelleher.

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Director Kelleher:
We receive thousands
of messages sent to

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President Obama from the
American people each day.

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To quickly get your
message to the White House,

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it's best to use the "contact
us" web form on whitehouse.gov.

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If you have to write us a
paper letter, type it up.

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Where you e-mail or
send a paper letter,

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use the subject line to
describe the purpose and

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content of your letter.

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And consider sending your gifts
to a local charity rather than

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the first family, gifts that
are edible or otherwise.

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Narrator:
This week, something different.

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Mailbag day.

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Mailbag day is when we take time
out from the usual regimen of

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vans, airplanes, helicopters and
boats to answer some letters and

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e-mails that were
sent to the President.

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Our first question
today is about trash.

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Do you compost at
the White House?

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If not, what do you do
with your table scraps?

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Well, to find out, we asked the
White House Executive Pastry

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Chef, Bill Yosses.

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The story starts in the kitchen.

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Chef Yosses:
Yes, we do compost
at the White House.

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And it starts in here
in the main kitchen.

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We take all of our vegetable and
fruit scraps and we take them

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down to the compost bin where
we put them in with soil and

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let them deteriorate.

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We don't have any scraps.

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Uh, you know what; we could
get some scraps in the pastry

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kitchen, if we can make
that like a second scene,

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scene two, okay. Cut.

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The whole purpose of composting
is to improve the microbiology

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of the soil, without
adding chemicals.

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So we save all these and we add
them to our compost heap down in

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the south lawn, which
is next to the garden.

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And the purpose of this is
to return the minerals and

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nutrients to the soil.

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I'm the least likely person
to be working on this garden.

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I spent most of my life in a
small apartment in New York

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City where I couldn't
even grow geraniums.

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There was no sunlight.

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So maybe that's why when Mrs.
Obama started this garden,

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I got so interested in it.

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Beside the food scraps
from the kitchen,

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we also add anything from the
garden that we're not using.

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The tomatoes we'll
take off to eat.

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But of course, the heavy stock
and the center and the leaves

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when they are fully grown,
those will go into the

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compost as well.

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This is three bins that are
where we hold the compost.

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So we throw it in there.

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So you want a layer of the
fruit scraps or the active

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organic material and then
you want a layer of soil.

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So what I'm going to do is take
this soil and cover it over.

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That accomplishes two things.

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The helpful bacteria that are
already in the soil begin to

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feed on the fruit scraps.

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And you also have,
as you can see,

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beneficial spiders and worms.

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As they consume the
organic material they

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really create soil.

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In about six weeks it will
be ready to turn over again.

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We'll let it what's called
"cure" for another four weeks

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and then let it sit for a month
or two in this bin and then it's

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ready to use.

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Composting is what this garden
is really about and the whole

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question of sustainability,
and using natural ways to

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replenish the land.

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Narrator:
Our next letter comes
from Sally in Mississippi.

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Sally writes, dear
President Obama,

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the carpet in the Oval Office
bears the seal of the President.

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Is it true that the eagle's
head turns from the olive

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branch to the arrows
when the U.S. is at war?

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To answer this one,
Brian Mosteller,

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who you may remember from a West
Wing Week episode two weeks ago,

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hit the books.

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Brian Mosteller:
Hello, Sally.

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Welcome to the Oval Office
and thanks for your question.

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The rug that's in the Oval
Office today was actually

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installed by President Bush.

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The President's seal that's
on the rug has the eagle's

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head facing the right, or the
position of honor, the laurels,

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instead of the arrows.

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This is the official and only
design of the Presidential seal

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since 1944, 1945.

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Now, there are three other
places in the White House where

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you can see the eagle takes
on a different design.

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One is on the resolute desk,
which was a gift from Queen

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Victoria to President Rutherford
B. Hayes back in 1880.

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Here the eagle's head
faces the arrows.

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Another example is just outside
the diplomatic reception room.

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And Sally, if you were to visit
the White House just outside the

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east wing where tours enter,
you'd see another example of

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the old eagle design where
the head faces the arrows.

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Here there's a reference to
the state of the nation when

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the east wing was built in 1942.

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And rest assured, Sally, if
you come to the Oval Office,

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any rug you see in there today
will have the eagle's head

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facing the olive branches.

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Narrator:
Our final letter
comes from Aaron,

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who wonders if there's a way
to find out when the President

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orders the flag to half staff?

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We've asked Staff Secretary Lisa
Brown to start at the beginning

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and explain the whole process.

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Staff Secretary Brown:
To answer your question,

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there are two ways in which
the flags can be ordered to be

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lowered to half staff.

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First by statute, there are a
number of times in which the

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U.S. flag is lowered, upon
the death of the President

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or Vice-President, a
member of Congress,

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a member of the Cabinet, a
sitting Supreme Court Justice.

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Congress has actually ordered
that the flag be lowered to half

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mast for a period of time.

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In addition, the President
himself or herself has the

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discretion to lower the
flag in other instances.

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Recent lowering of the flag
to half staff was in honor

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of Dorothy Height.

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And this is an instance in which
the President actually exercised

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his power to order that
the flags be lowered.

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And when he does that, he signs
a proclamation ordering that the

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flags be lowered.

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And this is a copy of the
proclamation and the incidence

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of lowering the flags upon
the death of Dorothy Height,

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the great civil rights leader.

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So if you're interested in
learning when the flag is going

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to be lowered, you can look
both as a general matter at the

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statute for USC Section 7, which
lists when Congress has ordered

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that the flag be lowered.

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In addition, when the President
exercises his discretion to have

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the flag lowered and
signs a proclamation,

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our press office will put out a
copy of that proclamation and it

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will also be on our website,
www.whitehouse.gov.

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Narrator:
Thanks so much for being
with us on mailbag day.

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For links, transcripts and
videos of the President's

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activities this week,
go to whitehouse.gov,

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and thanks again for checking
out your West Wing Week.

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President Obama:
You can leave jacket
in the car. It's hot.

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Speaker:
It's safer.

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President Obama:
It's safe. It's okay.
Nobody is going to steal it.